What Is Curated Content? A Guide to Sharpen Your Strategy

So you’ve just stumbled upon a treasure trove of content that speaks directly to your interests, neatly arranged and presented for reader enjoyment. You want to share those content sources on your channels. That’s the essence of what is curated content.

Content curation is about sifting through the digital noise to spotlight those golden nuggets that truly matter to you and your audience.

This guide will walk you through mastering the content curation process — from pinpointing good sources to balancing content curation with content creation.

Ready to master curating content? Let’s dive in!

Table Of Contents:

• What is Curated Content?
• Why Should You Curate Content?
• The Content Curation Process Unveiled
• Best Tools for Content Curation
• How to Effectively Curate Content
• Balancing Content Curation with Content Creation
• Repurpose Original Content
• Email Newsletters as a Curation Channel
• FAQs – What is Curated Content
  • What is the meaning of curated content?
  • What is the difference between curated and original content?
  • What is an example of curated content on social media?
  • How do you curate content?
• Conclusion

What is Curated Content?

Imagine a museum curator carefully selecting pieces for an exhibit.

The same goes for curated content in the digital world.

You evaluate mountains of information to share relevant, high-quality content with your audience.

Finding gems among millions of content pieces requires a keen eye and an understanding of your target audience’s needs.

A well-chosen article or social media post can enlighten readers, saving them time while solving their problems.

It’s all about showcasing great content that aligns with your brand but comes from various reputable sources.

How AI can speed up the content curation process

Why Should You Curate Content?

In the world of digital marketing, content curation is often viewed as a time-saving strategy. It allows you to maintain an active online presence without having to constantly generate original material.

But beyond this obvious advantage, what are the other benefits of curating content?

Faster Turnaround

Firstly, curating content can significantly reduce the workload for your creative team. While AI tools like BrandWell are already helping writers generate content in a jiffy, it still requires substantial effort from writers and designers to produce a 100% original, keyword-rich article.

Curated content, on the other hand, can be shared with just a few clicks. Even when you add personalized comments or adjust formatting elements, it still takes less time than crafting an entirely new post.

Position Your Brand as Expert

Beyond saving time, sharing curated content also helps enhance your brand’s reputation on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

When you consistently share relevant and informative posts from various sources in your industry niche, audiences begin to perceive your profiles as go-to resources for valuable information. This increases their trust in your brand and encourages them to engage more frequently with both your original and curated posts, thus expanding your organic reach over time.

Promote Links

Curated content can enhance your linking structure in posts, prompting audiences to click on links. This not only boosts engagement with curated material but also encourages interaction with your original content.

Engagement with Other Brands

Curated content is not about simply sharing someone else’s work on your platform; it’s an opportunity to initiate dialogue with other brands or influencers within your industry. By showcasing their insights alongside yours, you are essentially starting a conversation that can lead to valuable partnerships and collaborations.

Better Experience for Customers

Social media thrives on captivating your audience and transforming followers into dedicated patrons. By offering an exceptional experience through curated content, you help endear them to your brand.

Curating content helps save your customers time when searching for quality material — you’re providing them with diverse sources in one convenient location. Instead of scouring the web trying to find answers on their own, your audience can turn to you for insightful content tailored to their interests.

Avoid Too Much Self-Promotion

Have you ever entered a store only to be immediately bombarded by overzealous sales staff before you’ve even had a moment to look around?

Social media posts can evoke that same sense of pressure.

If your social channels are saturated with nothing but branded content and persistent calls to action like “buy now” or “learn more,” it risks coming across as excessively self-serving.

While brand promotion is important, the key lies in striking a balance: subtly endorse your products while also enriching your followers’ experience through thoughtfully curated posts.

Remember, content curation isn’t about being lazy or simply aggregating others’ work. Instead, it’s about carefully selecting information that will benefit your audience while adding your unique perspective to enhance its relevance and value.

With these strategies in place, curated content can serve as a powerful tool that starts conversations and fosters engagement with other brands – all while enhancing SEO performance and maintaining authenticity.

Source: CoSchedule

The Content Curation Process Unveiled

The first step in curating content is to search far and wide for pieces that tell a story, educate, or entertain your audience.

Look for nuggets of wisdom that align perfectly with your brand’s voice and your audience’s interests. Think of it as panning for gold in a river teeming with information — most will sift through, but what remains could be pure brilliance.

Your tools? A mix of content maturity assessments, Google Alerts, and social listening platforms help you identify good sources for curated content. These resources let you filter out noise so only relevant industry news reaches your screen.

To start, set up Google Alerts for your niche terms to stay updated on industry news. This notification tool lets you track good sources automatically, ensuring you never miss out on thought leadership material that could benefit your followers.

The next step is to organize your selected pieces. Thoughtful arrangement means more than just chronological order — it’s about creating narratives for maximum impact.

Curation isn’t random. It should be part of a strategic marketing plan designed to position your brand as an expert in your field.

Your goal? Keep the audience engaged by mixing original creations with third-party pieces they’ll find interesting.

A well-structured content calendar acts as a blueprint here. It ensures variety without overwhelming readers or diluting message potency.

Effective content curation also bolsters SEO efforts by keeping material fresh and engaging — a boon when aiming to rank higher on search engines without having to always create original work from scratch.

Best Tools for Content Curation

Content curation is a critical aspect of your content marketing strategy, but it can be time-consuming if done manually. Rather than search for relevant topics and posts online, here are some digital tools to help you with content curation.

Hootsuite curates content by tracking keywords, topics, or specific accounts. It also helps you plan your social media posts with curated content directly on your chosen platforms — making the process faster and more efficient.

UpContent is a similar tool that finds high-quality material you can use across your social media channels. You can change the URL or add custom images to keep things consistent with your brand’s identity.

Google Alerts is your old, reliable system for tracking new information on the internet. By setting up alerts for specific keywords or phrases, this handy tool sends you email notifications whenever it matches content — helping you monitor mentions of your brand as well.

Last but not least, TrendSpottr lets you see recent posts at the top of the results page which speeds up the process of finding top-notch content. The app is available both as a free version or premium subscription depending on features like pre-viral content search and multiple language tracking.

How to Effectively Curate Content

Curating content involves a thoughtful and strategic approach that adds value to your audience while reinforcing your brand’s expertise and trustworthiness.

Here are 10 key steps to effective content curation:

1. Understand Your Audience: Begin by deeply understanding the interests, needs, and challenges of your target demographic. This knowledge allows you to select content that resonates with them on a personal level.
2. Set Clear Goals: Determine what you want to achieve with content curation — whether it’s educating your audience, building community engagement, or establishing thought leadership in your industry.
3. Source Quality Content: Identify reputable sources related to your niche for high-quality content such as articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, or studies that provide valuable insights or entertainment.
4. Add Your Perspective: Don’t just share content. Add context or commentary that reflects your brand’s viewpoint or offers additional insight. This can differentiate the shared piece as uniquely insightful coming from you.
5. Mix Curated Content and Created Content: To achieve the right balance, mix curated blog posts with original content so followers see both the breadth of information available and innovative thoughts directly from you.
6. Use Reliable Tools & Platforms: Leverage tools like RSS feed aggregators (e.g., Feedly), social media management platforms (e.g., Hootsuite), and other curation services that help streamline finding and sharing relevant material efficiently.
7. Share Responsibly: Always credit original creators when sharing their work. It maintains ethical standards and often encourages reciprocal shares which expand reach for all parties involved.
8. Engage With Followers: Curate not only based on relevance but also potential conversation starters — encourage dialogue around curated blog posts through questions, polls, surveys, etc.
9. Monitor Performance: Track how well different types of curated content are performing using analytics tools. Refine your strategy to focus more on what drives engagement.
10. Stay Updated And Consistent: Keep abreast with current trends within your industry to ensure the timeliness of your shared materials. Your audience expects regular updates so maintain a consistent schedule when curating content.

With content curation as part of your content marketing strategy, you can provide substantial value to your loyal fans and boost the brand you represent.

Balancing Content Curation with Content Creation

Your voice should never get lost in the mix — think 70/30 rule when mixing created with curated posts. Keep most of your output original while sprinkling in some thought leadership from third-party pieces.

When curating content, remember to prioritize quality over quantity. It’s always preferable to post less frequently than to share poor-quality links or bad content.

Spend significant time verifying the sources from which you curate content and ensure they align with your brand values and audience interests. Curation should complement, rather than dominate, your overall strategy.

Repurpose Original Content

Apart from using fresh material from third-party sources, consider repurposing older pieces of your original work too. Resharing previously published posts helps maintain an active online presence without having to create new material every day.

Repurposed content can add diversity while keeping consistency in message delivery across different platforms.

BrandWell is one of the few AI content marketing tools that allow you to repurpose content in an instant. It can turn your YouTube videos, podcast episodes, existing blog posts, and even documents created with Word, Doc, or PowerPoint into a fresh, original long-form blog post within minutes!

Email Newsletters as a Curation Channel

Email newsletters are the unsung heroes of content curation, directly connecting you with your audience.

They let you share relevant articles, blog posts, and media that strike a chord with subscribers.

This strategy isn’t just throwing spaghetti to the wall and seeing what sticks; it’s about adding value to every send-out.

A killer layout does more than catch eyes; it makes curated content digestible and engaging for readers.

If done right, this approach not only showcases great content but also reflects your brand’s image brilliantly.

FAQs – What is Curated Content

What is the meaning of curated content?

Curated content means handpicked material from various sources, tailored to match an audience’s interests and shared strategically.

What is the difference between curated and original content?

Original content springs from your own efforts; curated involves sharing others’ work with credit while adding your perspective.

What is an example of curated content on social media?

A list of top industry articles posted on LinkedIn or a roundup tweet thread qualifies as social media curation.

How do you curate content?

To curate, scour for quality pieces that align with your brand, then share them interspersed with unique insights or commentary.

Conclusion

So now you know what is curated content and how it can transform your digital strategy.

Remember: balance is key. Mixing original work with third-party gems makes for a dynamic feed that captivates followers.

Tools like Google Alerts streamline your search, letting you share relevant industry news swiftly.

Dive into social media platforms; they’re prime real estate for sharing these finds and bolstering your brand’s presence.

And don’t overlook SEO benefits — curated pieces can rank higher, drawing in more eyes to what you have to say.

In short, mastering content curation means staying informed, being selective, and always aiming to add value — a surefire way to stand out as a thought leader today.